More than 60 years after the establishment of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, the gates of a soccer stadium opened to female spectators in the kingdom for the first time on Friday, in one of the first concrete measures aimed at relaxing strict social rules.

“I’m so excited! I can’t believe this day has finally come,” said May Mahdi, a soccer fan from Jeddah. “I literally thought of dressing like a guy to sneak into a game a couple of times before. Thank God now we don’t need to do that.”